GILROY
– In a quiet race for four seats, newcomer Dom Payne posted a
second-place finish behind pack leader Jaime Rosso and won a seat
on the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education.
Incumbents Tom Bundros and Francisco Dominguez will join them.
GILROY – In a quiet race for four seats, newcomer Dom Payne posted a second-place finish behind pack leader Jaime Rosso and won a seat on the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education. Incumbents Tom Bundros and Francisco Dominguez will join them.
Incumbent Denise Apuzzo finished last in the five-person race by 202 votes.
“I wasn’t surprised or not surprised,” said Apuzzo. “I didn’t campaign a lot. Right now I’m working full time and I just did not have the time. I’m a little disappointed, but honestly I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of change on the school board.”
Ironically, Apuzzo said she walked precincts for Governor-elect Jerry Brown, perhaps to her own detriment. “For me it was more important – I’m a union person – that Jerry Brown get elected,” she said.
With all 42 precincts counted Wednesday, Rosso lead the field with 5,073 votes; followed by Payne with 3,880; Dominguez with 3,859; Bundros with 3,852; and Apuzzo with 3,650.
Provisional ballots are still being counted with the top four vote-getters winning seats on the school district’s seven-member Board of Trustees.
Payne, the father of five children, has four in GUSD schools, the oldest at Christopher High and others at Brownell Middle School and Luigi Aprea Elementary School.
“I’m very happy,” Payne said Wednesday evening. “This is my first stab at political office … we worked it door-to-door. Primarily, I would just tell people a little bit about my background and, fundamentally, I’m very passionate about education and I think that came through.
“The way I look at governance and my involvement in governance is that’s it’s service first – service to the public.”
Payne, 37, is a Gavilan College instructor. He teaches English as a second language and computer science courses and, in the morning, he teaches a class at Gilroy’s Eliot Elementary School – the school which has posted -eye-popping gains in test scores the last two years.
Payne said that he found “an undercurrent of wanting a change” in Gilroy while talking to residents.
He said he’s had a front-row seat at Eliot School and has admired the way Principal James Dent has led the school to new heights.
“It’s really exciting. I really enjoy his approach – mixing innovation with technology,” Payne said.
The five candidates agreed prior to the election that the district’s top priority should be increasing the academic achievement of each of Gilroy’s 11,000 public school students. They also revealed similar views on a proposed charter school, federal legislation mandating that all children be academically proficient by 2014 and the gloomy state of California’s funding for education.
“There’s no justification for kids not moving up,” said Rosso, the top vote getter and owner of local furniture stores in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Bundros said he hoped to see the district develop a “no-nonsense respect for education” and said the Board had developed a solid working relationship and mutual respect for each other.
“I think Gilroy has been blessed with an exceptional board,” Bundros said. “It’s been exhilarating working on this board.”
Meanwhile, Rosso, the father of three and husband of a GUSD teacher, brings more than eight years of experience as a trustee to the table. He said he looks forward to completion of many of the projects that have been started during his tenure.
“I’m excited about what I see on the horizon,” he said.
With a thinking-outside-the-box mentality, Bundros, the father of six grown children, pointed to how he was the one to introduce GUSD to some of the models for academic success now being implemented in classrooms.
“I’m a fanatic,” he said. “We expect kids to move. If we don’t see that, shame on us.”
For Dominguez, his openness to trying new approaches when the traditional way of doing things isn’t working – even if it involves a risk – is a major strength, he said.
Apuzzo looked back on the last four years calling it “an incredibly positive experience.” She believes the hiring of Superintendent Debbie Flores was the highlight of the last four years along with giving Eliot School the staff and resources to accomplish lofty goals. “That really paid off,” she said.
42 of 42 precincts reporting as of 5 a.m. Wednesday
Denise Apuzzo
Tom Bundros
Francisco Dominguez
Votes: 3,650
Votes: 3,852
Votes: 3,859
Percentage: 17.97%
Percentage: 18.96%
Percentage: 19.00%
Domingo Payne
Jaime Rosso
Votes: 3,880
Votes: 5,073
Percentage: 19.10%
Percentage: 24.97%
